MINING AND MKTADDURGY 


IN SOMM OF TIIEIK RBIATIONS TO TIIK 

PROGRKSS OP CIVILIZATION 

I 

ESPKClABl-y TO TUB 

l»ROOKIi:SS OF MININO IN THF UNJTX^3I> STATES. 


An AddrcHS Delivered by Invitation at the Commencenaent 
I]xerci.ses of the Missouri School of Mines 


UY 

WIEIAAM 1*. EL ARE, F. U. S 

n 

PROFB»«OR OF «HOL.OOy, TJNIVBRSITY OF ARIZONA, AND 
DIRECTOR OF TUIB ARIZONA SCHOOL OF MINES. 


ROLL A, MO. 



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JAN 10 1905 

D. of 0, 





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Pa^e 1^. Sixth line from the ijottoiii of })a‘^e, for Carriterihes, re<i(l 
Cassiterides. 

4. P\)r adventerous marines, rend adventurous miners. 

Patje 5. Second line, for spoils obtaine, re(id spoils to be obtained. 
Pag'e b. Sixth line, for prom])ted. r('((d promoted. 

Pa«:e b. Twenty-fourth line, for little rew-ions, rend little known. 
Pag^e 7. In foot note, for American .Journal Sciences, rend Ameri¬ 
can Journal of Science, Second Series. XXV, p. 227. 

Page 8. Line seventeen, for miner, rend mines. 

Page 9. In the foot note, for Schwab, rend Swank. 




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IVllNING AND METALLURGY IN SOME OF THEIR RELATIONS 
TO THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 


An Address Delivered by Invitation Before the School of Mines 
and Mstallurgy of the University of Missouri, 
at RoMa. May 30th, 1902. 


This is a vein of thought which may be followed to ad¬ 
vantage upon this occasion in an institution devoted to edu¬ 
cation in mining. 


EARLY FABLES AND RECORDS. 


Mining, as an art, antedates human history. No other 
occupation of man has, however, left more enduring monu¬ 
ments of his work. Temples and .habitations decay and 
disappear, but excavations in solid rock remain to tell us of 
the search for the hidden treasures of the earth. Relics of 
the stone age, preceding the eras of bronze or iron, tell us 
of the search for stones of the proper hardness, grain and 
strength out of which to fashion arrow and spear-heads for 
the chase and for defense, or implements with which to till 
the earth in the dawn of agriculture. 

In the glittering gold from the beds of rivers the most 
ancient and forgotten races found a malleable and enduring 
metal with which to decorate their bodies in life and en¬ 
shroud them after death. 

From the earliest ages miners and metallurgists have 
been the pioneers of progress. They have ever been the 
promoters of exploration of unknown regions; of the sub¬ 
jugation of the wilderness and of the birth and growth of 
the exact sciences. 

The outcroppings of records of mining as one of the 
leading occupations of man may be found in the earliest 
pages of history. The Hebrew Scriptures abound in refer- 






2 


ences to the precious metals, especially as used for the 
decoration of religious objects, such as the ark of the 
covenant and the golden candlesticks. Even the quality of 
gold is noted, as for example; 

“The gold of that land (Havilah) is good.”* 

We are told of “Tubal Cain, the instructor of every 
artificer in brass and iron,”t and should recognize him as 
the most ancient professor of metallurgy of whom we have 
an}^ record. 

The ancient poets, especially Homer, have perhaps 
unconsciously given us valuable “indications” of the abund¬ 
ance and use of gold and silver. The admirable workman¬ 
ship of the shield of Achilles is described, but little or noth¬ 
ing is recorded of the source of the metals. 

The fantastic fables of the ancients regarding the oc¬ 
currence and sources of gold show a desire to exalt the 
popular estimation of the value of the metal by exaggerating 
the difficulties and dangers attending its production. Its 
sources were not revealed. Gold and other treasures were 
said to be guarded by the griffins, those fierce beasts, half 
lion and half eagle, from whose custody gold was wrested 
by the Arimaspi. These were the one-eyed men of the 
North, the legendary C3'clops, living in caverns in the 
mountains and occasionally coming out to the light of day 
with one flaming eye in the middle of the forehead. In 
these imaginary terrible monsters we can readily recognize 
honest toiling miners emerging from tunnels with their can¬ 
dles in their hats. By way of contrast with the Cyclops we have 
the Carthagenian story of gold mining by beautiful young 
girls who drew gold-dust out of the mud of a lake by means 
of feathers smeared with pitch and tied to long poles. + 

The Persians had a tradition of people who went forth 
into the sandy deserts on camels to steal the gold-dust re¬ 
ported as raised from the earth by “ants as big as foxes. 

^Genesis, 2d chapter, 12th verse. 
tGen. 4, 22. 
tHerodotus, 4, 95. 

^Pliny, 33, 15. 



3 


The tendency to exaggerate in mining matters, you may 
observe, is not of modern growth. 

Pliny tells us of Saulaces, King of Colchis, who gathered 
in immense quantities of placer gold from the soil of his 
kingdom, famous for the golden fleece. In this curious 
legend of the fleece, we may recognize a foundation in the 
fact that sheep-skins are used to collect gold in washing 
operations. Skins so used and sheeted with gold would 
attract attention and arouse cupidity. There is thus less 
wonder that expeditions were organized for the recovery of 
the fleece. Jason and the Argonauts had substantial objects 
in view. 

Thus, out of legendary fables we may be able to “pan 
out” a few golden grains of truth, and show that the love 
of gold early had a dominating influence upon explorations. 

There is little doubt that the sands of the Pactolus 
furnished a great part of the riches of Croesus, and the gifts 
sent by him to Delphi.* 

But the mining operations of the ancients were not 
confined to gold alone. The silver, lead and zinc mines of 
Laurium worked as early as the Trojan wars, about 1200 
years before Christ, were deserted at the beginning of the 
Christian era, but remain to this day as fine examples of 
extensive and comparatively well-designed mining opera¬ 
tions upon an extended scale. 

PHOENICIAN EXPLORATIONS. 

It was the desire for gold and other metals which led 
the Phoenicians beyond the Pillars of Hercules along the 
coast of Spain a^ld Gaul to Britain. (B. C. 450.) Their 
trade for tin took them to the Carriterides, and paved the 
way for the invasion of Gaul and Britain by Caesar. Thus 
the tin-bearing lodes of Cornwall were the cause of the in¬ 
jection of Roman civilization in the heart of England. Tin 
became the basis of an overland trade by pack-trains from 
the coast through Gaul to Rome and the Mediterranean, 


*Herodotus, 5, 41. 




4 


giving knowledge of the geography, people, and resources 
of that region to the Romans. 

The commercial supremacy of the Phoenicians is as¬ 
cribed to their extensive trading expeditions in and beyond 
the Mediterranean, and especially with Tarshish, where they 
had not alone profitable fisheries, but rich mines of silver 
and other metals. They had also drawn tin from the mines 
in the north of Spain, as well as from Cornwall. * 

From the days of the Golden Fleece till now, the de¬ 
sire for gold has been the great incentive to expeditions of 
investigation and discover}", and the usual result has been 
that by finding gold the means have been secured for fur¬ 
ther and greater efforts, and for the rapid advance in civili¬ 
zation and wealth. 

There are, it is true, some most notable exceptions to 
the statement that the search for gold, or other mineral pro¬ 
ducts or material benefits,has been the dominating impulse of 
exploration, but such exceptions, if any, are usually the 
fruit of success and of the wealth based upon the riches 
drawn primaril}' from the earth, t 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

It was the desire for gold and the wealth of the Indies 
which turned the attention of adventerous marines to the 
possibility of reaching India by the western ocean. We 
owe the discovery of America to this spirit. It was not the 
pure love of knowledge, for its own sake, which induced 
Columbus and his band to sail from the little port of Palos 
in 1492. The expectation of gain was shown conclusively 

*Ency. Brit.—Art Phoenicia. 

tJastrow while admitting the tradition that Phoenician ship^ 
passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and reached the English 
coast, questions whether they actually brought back tin from the 
mines of Cornwall. Vide Johnson's Cyclopedia, Art Phoenicia. 

tAmongst some of the more notable exceptions, we may cite 
the Challenger Expedition, United States Exploring Expedition, 
the Austrian Expedition around the world, the various Polar Ex¬ 
peditions, Perry’s voyage to Japan, (having however, trade and 
commerce in view ), and lately the Harrimann Expedition to Alaska. 




5 


by the stipulations of Columbus, regarding the division of 
the spoils obtained by conquest, or b}' trade. 

After the return of Columbus from his first voyage he 
represented to the Court of Spain that Santo Domingo was 
a country abounding with gold, offering an inexhaustible 
source of wealth to the Crown and Kingdom. The only 
really valuable objects he was able to display to the sover¬ 
eigns were the ornaments of gold. It was the yellow metal 
which produced the greatest impression and which induced 
the Council of Castile to determine to take possession of 
the newly discovered countries inhabited by practically de¬ 
fenseless savages.* There was a pretense of anxiety to con¬ 
vert these poor Indians to Christianity; this seemed to gloss 
over and sanctify the rank injustice of the project, but the 
hope of securing treasures of gold and precious stones was 
the real underlying motive. 

Columbus, with an instinct worthy of a modern nrine 
promoter, proposed that half of all the gold and silver that 
should be found should belong to the Crown. This met the 
approval of the Council, but in the course of a few years it 
was found impossible to pay so heavy a tax, which was 
soon reduced to a third, then to a fifth; to a tenth, and 
finally to one-twentieth part of the gross produce of the 
gold mines. In this we have indicated to us the origin of 
what for so many generations was known in Spain and 
Mexico as the “King’s fifth,” and which still survives to us 
in the form of the bullion or export tax. 

Adam Smith says it was the sacred thirst for gold that 
carried Oieda Nicuessa and Vasco Nugnes de Balboa to the 
Isthmus of Darien; that carried Cortez to Mexico, and 
Almagro and Pozzaro to Chile and Peru. When these ad¬ 
venturers arrived upon any unknown coast their first en¬ 
quiry was whether there was any gold to be found there.! 
Every Spaniard who sailed to America expected to find an 
Eldorado. 

The increase in the revenues of Spain from the influx 

*Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations; 2, cap. 7, 353. 

fWealth of Nations, 2, 7, 354. 



6 


of the gold and silver from the New World did not fail to 
attract the attention of other European nations and to 
stimulate them to explore, and to found colonies upon the 
shores of America. Visions of golden ealth dazzled the 
imaginations of the adventurous spirits of England, and 
greatly prompted the early settlement of the New World. 

The first settlers of America from England offered a 
fifth of all the gold and silver which should be found there 
to the King as an inducement to the Crown to make grants 
and issue patents and privileges to the colonists. 

In the patents to Sir Walter Raleigh; to the London 
and Plymouth Companies, and to the Council of Plymouth 
this fifth was reserved to the Crown.* 

The successive expeditions planned by Raleigh to the 
shores of America were inspired by the desire for gold, and 
the belief in the existence of the fabled Eldorado, in search 
of which he went in person in 1595 to the Orinoco, t, 

SPANISH COLONIAL EXPLORATIONS. 

The Spanish colonists were no sooner well established 
in Mexico than their attention was directed northwards to 
Sonora and beyond, into the region now know as New 
Mexico and Arizona. 

Several successive expeditions were fitted out in Mexico 
to traverse these little regions. There was much enthusi¬ 
asm amongst the gay Spanish cavaliers. The adventurers 
more than once traversed the table-land of Mexico, through 
Sonora to the confines of Arizona, where, finding the 
sources of the Santa Cruz, they followed this valley and 
stream, which then formed a long line of verdure in the 
deserts leading to the Gila and the great Colorado of the 
West. They discovered many silver-bearing veins on their 
way. The great masses of native silver known as the 
plancJias dc la Plata, dug from the soil near our present 

*Wealth of Nations, 2, 7, 357. 

tRaleigh’s charter of colonization was obtained in 1584. He 
sent Amadas and Barlow to examine the country, wliich he named 
Virginia. 



7 


boundary line, verified their wildest dreams of mineral 
wealth. They founded missions, and the pueblos of Tubac, 
Tucson and Santa Fe as early as the settlement of New 
England. 

These early explorers were stimulated to undertake 
these hazardous expeditions by the extravagant stories of not 
only the abundance of the precious metals, but of precious 
stones, foremost amongst these being the turquoise, the 
gem known to the aboriginal people as chalchuite, and 
more highly prized by them than gold. This beautiful gem 
was in general use and high estimation for ornam.ental pur¬ 
poses, and was extensively mined not only in New Mexico 
near Santa Fe,* but at several places in Arizona, as proved 
b}' the abundance of mining implements, made of stone, 
found in pre-historic workings upon veins of chalchuite. 
And we have abundant evidence that the pre-historic tribes 
not only of New Mexico and Arizona, but of the Mississippi 
vallev and the great lakes were familiar with some of the 
more important mineral deposits of the country. 

Lead ores were extracted and were used for ornament 
and were, perhaps, smelted long before the advent of the 
whites. ; 

In the copper regions of Lake vSuperior the native 
copper was mined from the upper portion of the Cliff Mine 
Lode, and no doubt from other croppings as shown by an¬ 
cient trenches, at the bottom of which quantities of stone 
mauls have been found. The aborigines were thus not 
content with a bit of drift copper, found here and there, 
but had recourse to the veins as well. The finding of cop¬ 
per ornaments and implements in some of the aborigmal 
mounds in the Mississippi valley indicates to us a very con¬ 
siderable trade or communication between the ancient 
tribes of the Northwest and the Ohio valley. 


*See papers upon tbe Chalchuite of the Mexicans and its iden¬ 
tity with turquoise. American Journal Sciences. 



8 


THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

Let US now consider the influence of mineral riches 
and of mining upon the early settlement and occupation of 
the region about us. 

In the year 1712, Louis XIV, of France, issued a pat¬ 
ent for the discovery and operation of mines in the then 
Territory of Louisiana. This patent was transferred to the 
“Company of the West,” of which John Law was the pro¬ 
moter,* in 1717. In 1719, Renault was made general direc¬ 
tor of the mines of the company, and left France with two 
hundred miners and artisansf and was accompanied by La- 
Motte, who afterwards worked the deposits now bearing 
his name. Renault’s expedition is credited with the intro¬ 
duction of slavery in this region, for he stopped on the wa}' 
at Santo Domingo, W. I., and brought five hundred slaves 
from there to work in the mines. 

You are already so familiar with the history of lead and 
zinc mining in Missouri, and the importance of the miner 
of these metals to the state, that I need not do more than 
to remind you of their influence upon its development. 
So, also, of the lead deposits of southern Wisconsin and of 
Iowa, and of their fnfluence upon the early trade of the 
Mississippi. 


IRON AND STEEL. 

Time does not permit us to attempt even a rapid sur¬ 
vey of the beginning and progress of the mining and metal¬ 
lurgy of the more common and useful metals, but we must 
not omit mention of some of the more important advances 
in metallurgy by American engineers, and especially of the 
industry of Iron and Steel, so important in its relations to 


*This Company of the West was also known as the “Mississippi 
Company.” A bank was established and later failed with over 
$200,000,000 in circulation in worthless notes. The charter re¬ 
verted to the Crown in 1731. Mo. Geol. Survey, 6, p. 209. 
fSchoolcraft, 203, p. 19. Cited by Wdnslow. 





9 


the progn'ess of humanity in all the arts and amenities of 
life.*- 

The consumption of iron and steel in any community 
has come to be regarded as a sort of industrial barometer 
indicating the extent of productive and constructive energy, 
much as the quantit}^ of soap used per capita has been re¬ 
garded as evidence of godliness in a community. The dis¬ 
tinguished Dr. Torrey used to say we could judge of the in¬ 
telligence of a people by the arriount of sulphuric acid con¬ 
sumed. 

The chronological record of the beginning and progress 
of the iron and steel industries in the United States exhibits 
a most remarkable evenness and regularity of growth and a 
still more remarkable breadth of geographical distribution 
and rapidity of expansion in the last quarter of the 19 th 
century, t 

As early as 1619 , the Virginia Company sent to Vir¬ 
ginia a number of persons to set up three iron works in the 
Colony. In 1622 the works were destroyed and all the 
workmen were massacred b}" Indians. 

In 1642 , eleven English gentlemen, with a capital of 
;^i.ooo, organized an iron company and bnilt a foundry at 
Lynn, Massachusetts, and in 1658 a blast furnace and a re¬ 
finery forge were in operation at New Haven, Conn., and 
before the end of the centur}" iron-works had been estab¬ 
lished in Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The limonite ores of Salis¬ 
bury, Conn., were early worked, and bar iron was produced 
there before the Revolutionary war. A bloomary forge was 

* Abram S. Hewitt has ably presented this subject in his report 
entitled, “Iron and Steel in their Economic and Social Relations.” 
Paris Exposition of 1867. 

fA chronological record of the leading events in the develop¬ 
ment of the iron and steel industries of the United States down to 
the close of the 19th century is given by James M. Schwab, general 
manager of the American Iron & Steel Association, in his Annual 
Statistical Report, Nov. 25, 1901; reprinted from the 12th Annual 
Rept. U. S. Geol. Sur., Div. of Mining and Mineral Resources. 
See also “Iron in All Ages,” 



ro 


erected at Lime Rock in 1734. 

At the beginning’ of the 19th century the iron ore beds 
of the Adirondack, N, Y. region were developed, and iron 
was made there in Catalan forges. The Iron Mountain 
and Pilot Knob districts, in Missouri, were developed in 
1815-1816. 

Coke was first successfully used in the blast furnaces 
in the United States by Firmstone in 1825. Anthracite 
coal was first used for the production of pig iron in the blast 
furnace in 1839, but the credit of the first completely suc¬ 
cessful effort, in 1840, to use anthracite in smelting iron is 
given to David Thomas, who is called the father of our pig- 
iron industry,* 

The discovery of the iron ores of the Lake Superior 
region by white men was made in 1844, and the first ship¬ 
ment of about ten tons was made in 1850. Its first use in 
a blast furnace was in Pennsylvania in 1853. 

Connecticut was probably the first of the Colonies to 
make steel, and as early as 1728. (p 13) 

In February, 1865, Alex. L. Holley produced Besse¬ 
mer steel at Troy, in works constructed there in 1864. 
Some Bessemer steel was also produced at Wyandotte, 
Mich., in 1864, at the experimental works of the Kelly 
Pneumatic Process Co. 

Natural gas was first used as a fuel in the manufacture 
of iron in the year 1874. 

In 1890 the United States, for the first time, made 
more pig-iron than Great Britain. 

The production of pig-iron in 1900 was 13,789,242 tons, 
and in this year the United States for the first time made 
more open-hearth steel than Great Britain. We produced 
of Bessemer steel, 6,684,770 tons in 1900, and adding other 
kinds of steel, the aggregate exceeded 10,000,000 tons. 


^Anthracite was first rained 1793; shipment began 1820: used 
for generation of steam 1825, and not until 1839, as an exclusive 
fuel in manufacture of pig iron. 



II 


ZINC, NICKEL, CARBORUNDUM, ETC. 

Zinc does not permit more than a brief mention of some 
of the more important advances made by American metal¬ 
lurgists. 

In the industry of zinc we may take great pride. We 
have not only produced a superior grade of commercial 
spelter, but have cheapened and increased the production 
of zinc-white by the bag process for its collection, the in¬ 
vention of S. T. Jones, of New York, about 1850. This 
method, now generally adopted abroad, is known as the 
American Bag Process. It is well supplemented by the 
Wetherill Furnace, the most economical and effective. 
Since the year 1850 the great zinc ore deposits of Sussex 
County, New Jersey, at Stirling and Franklin, have been 
actively worked. LaSalle, Illinois, and Joplin, Mo., have 
since become prominent as centers of the industry of zinc. 
The poet-geologist Percival early directed the attention of 
metallurgists to the value of the “dry bone” usually thrown 
over the dump by the miners of Wisconsin. 

In the preparation and manufacture of pure metallic 
nickel, Joseph Wharton, of Philadelphia, surprised the 
metallurgists in 1876, and again at Paris in 1878, by the 
number and excellence of objects made from nickel extract¬ 
ed from the low grade sulphide ores of Lancaster Gap, sur¬ 
passing anything produced abroad. 

Wetherill has astonished electricians by the power and 
effectiveness of his electro-magnetic concentrators. 

Carborundum—the silicide of carbon—has been added 
to the list of abrasives by American ingenuit}^ and the utili¬ 
zation of the electric current. 


PETROLEUM. 

The utilization of rock oil or petroleum, and the boring 
of the first well by Drake in 1859, were events of the ut¬ 
most importance in the history of mining, and to the march 


12 


of Civilization.* 

The oozing- of mineral oil from the ground, and its dif¬ 
fusion upon the waters of the creek had long before been- 
observed. It was collected in small quantities for years 
and sold as a medicine. The water was either skimmed, 
or the oil was absorbed by blankets spread upon pools of 
water in tanks or trenches, or in salt wells. As early as the 
year 1845 crude oil from Tarentum had been used as a 
lubricant in the Hope Cotton Factory. Attempts were 
soon after made to refine the oil for illuminating purposes. 
The younger Silliman at Yale was called upon to make an 
analysis and to advise respecting its treatment. The world 
was sadly in need of.light. Experiments upon volatile oils 
distilled from coals had been numerous. An oil which 
could be used to replace the vile-smelling greasy whale oil 
in hand lamps was the great desic^eratum. Its use as an il- 
luminant had been suggested as early as 1828. 

The experiments promised success. A clarified distil¬ 
late was obtained. Burners and chimneys of glass were 
devised. Perfect combustion and a brilliant light was se¬ 
cured. The next question was as to quantit}^ This was 
answered by the drill of Drake. The industry of petroleum 
was born. It has been said that “the discovery of Drake 
not only opened the door to material wealth, but to new 
avenues of human activity, mental and manual.” 

Oil in quantities in the remote forests of Pennsylvania 
required new methods, new machinery, new methods of 
storing and of transportation. Compare for a moment the 
movement of oil in barrels, on wagons, and in fiat boats 
down the creeks to the river, with the magnificent pipe-line 
transportation of to-day from the wells to the sea-board. 
Compare the original price of $20 per barrel for Drake’s 
crude oil with the price of one dollar at the end of the cen¬ 
tury. Compare the cost of refined oil in i860 at from 70 to 

*Work at the first well began about the 20th of May, 1859, and 
the general impression is that oil was struck in flowing quantities 
August 27, 1859. The boring had reached a depth of 69i feet from 
the surface, and the yield was about twenty barrels a day. 





13 


75 cents per gallon, with its present price of about lo cents 
per gallon. 

One oil-producing district after another has been added 
to our sources of petroleum, and of its accompaniment, 
natural gas. Both have been utilized as fuel and in metal¬ 
lurgy. The industry of iron and steel has been modified, 
almost revolutionized, by their use. Better products have 
resulted. 

Oil is being substituted for coal upon some of our rail¬ 
ways, and at our mills for reducing ores. It is destined to 
play a most important part in the smelting of ores. 

GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 

The discovery of gold in California was an event of the 
utmost significance and world-wide importance. Every in¬ 
dustry, every calling in life, was stimulated to greater ac¬ 
tivity. The spirit of adventure and exploration was arous¬ 
ed throughout the world. The comparatively unknown 
vast region of the west lay between the people of the At¬ 
lantic states and the new Eldorado. 

Expeditions were rapidly organized. Companies of en¬ 
terprising energetic men went over the broad plains by way 
of the Platte and South Pass, following the trails of Ere- 
mont, some by the Gila River route, some by Nicaragua, 
and others by Panama, or around Cape Horn. 

Argonauts from every land crowded the Golden Gate 
of the Pacific, each one eager to secure a golden fleece. 
A new era—the golden era—had dawned upon the world! 
Civilization had spanned a continent at one bound. 

In placer mining great and rapid progress was made. 
The pan and cradle were succeeded by the sluice and the 
hydraulic method, said by some to have been the invention 
of a New York fireman. 

Attention was soon turned to the veins, and then arose 
a demand for crushing and stamping machinery. One or 
two mills had been imported from Cornwall, crude affairs 
with stamps of timber shod with iron, but they were quick- 


14 


ly superseded by stamps of improved construction. The 
California stamp mill was evolved, and became the stan¬ 
dard mill of the mining world. 

Foundries and machine shops were established in San 
Francisco, and were sustained chiefly by the demand for 
mining and milling machinery. 

The first rock-breaker replaced hand spalling of rock in 
i86i, at the Merced mill, in Mariposa county. 

The discovery of the Comstock Lode, and its rapid de¬ 
velopment, made renewed and greater demands for both 
hoisting, pumping and milling machinery of the most ad¬ 
vanced and approved types, rivaling the superb machinery 
from the establishments of Belgium, France or Germany. 
The foundations were thus laid for the great works at which 
such cruisers and battleships as the Charleston, the San 
Francisco and the Oregon have since been produced. 

RAILWAYS. 

With this wonderful development of mines in California 
and Nevada, and the outflow of gold and silver, 
the need of rapid overland communication with our 
new territories on the Pacific became more and more ur¬ 
gent. The toiling teams of oxen in their three months of 
travel had given way, in part, to staging by relays of horses 
and to the Pony Express. The possibility of a railway was 
much discussed. Though much information regarding our 
vast interior region had been gained by the expeditions of 
Fremont, Stansbery, Sitgreaves and Emory, and from the 
hurried emigrant, the U. S. Congress in 1853 authorized the 
series of explorations under the direction of the War De¬ 
partment to ascertain the most practicable and economic¬ 
al route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pa¬ 
cific Ocean,” which resulted in giving to the nation and to 
the world the series of reports in 12 quarto volumes upon 
the topography, geography, mineral and other resources of 
that vast interior, far surpassing in extent and value any 
similar work in the history of the world. The construction 


5 


of the first transcontinental line soon followed, and today 
there are no less than seven trunk lines connecting the 
Mississippi with the Pacific,—great links in the march of 
civilization westward, promoted and hastened, and largely, 
if not chiefly supported, by the development of mining. 
And to the same development we owe the construction 
and maintenance of the Panama railway, 

GOLD IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. 

Following close upon the development of the gold de¬ 
posits of California came the discovery ot the golden riches 
of Australia and New Zealand leading to the occupation of 
those remote insular continents by the English speaking 
race. 


AFRICAN MINES. 

The gold and diamonds of Africa, the deep and prom¬ 
ising mines of the Rand have profoundly shaped the desti¬ 
nies of Africa, and have left a scar upon the civilization of 
England. The great war in which England is engaged was 
not undertaken for the benefit of the Boers, but for the 
more complete control and ownership of the mines. It is 
impossible to foresee the far-reaching effects of this contest, 
now happily ended, or of the tide of wealth poured into the 
channels of trade and world development. 

It is interesting to note that in the working and admin¬ 
istration of some of the vast properties in Africa, American 
talent has been employed in the persons of Williams and of 
Hammond, educated mining engineers of world-wide celeb¬ 
rity, who grew up under the influences of mining in Califor¬ 
nia. 


ALASKA. 

The belief in the abundance of gold in Alaska, in addi¬ 
tion to the great value of the region for timber and fisher¬ 
ies, had no small influence in the negotiation for its pur- 


i6 


chase. Time has verified the correctness of this belief, and 
today we find the country redeemed from its former desola¬ 
tion of snow and ice, and occupied advancing civiliza¬ 
tion, drawing to it men and capital from all parts of the 
world, supporting lines of steamships and projecting lines 
of railway. Alaska gives us, also, one of the most interest¬ 
ing and instructive examples of gold mining and milling on 
a large scale upon ores of extremely low average contents 
of the precious metal. 

The influence of the golden tide flowing from that ice¬ 
bound land is felt not alone in the markets of the world by 
the creation of a wider demand for all forms of the products 
of furnaces, farms and factories, but in the halls of educa¬ 
tion and science. Already the geographers and geologists 
of Washington have penetrated the interior, and are giving 
the results of their explorations to the world. But still 
more extended surveys and varied routes of travel are pro¬ 
jected for this summer (1902).* Railways are promised, 
and copper mines as well as gold deposits are attracting at¬ 
tention. 


GOLD AND PLATINUM OF THE URALS. 

We no doubt owe to the desire to know more about 
the gold fields of the Urals the splendid results of the geo¬ 
logical reconnaissance by Sir Roderick J. Murchison, Von 
Keyserling and de Verneuil.t 

The earlier discovery of a strange white metal in the 
auriferous sands of the Ural mountains, which in 1823 was 
recognized as platinum, was the cause of the scientific ex¬ 
pedition to the Urals by Humboldt, G. Rose and Ehren- 
berg in 1829.1 

In regard to the explorations of Humboldt in New 

Vide: Proposed Surveys in Alaska in 1902, by Alfred H. 
Brooks, U. S. Geological Survey, Nat. Geographic Magazine, 
XIII, No. 4, p. 133. 

fRussia in Europe and the Urals. 

^Treatise on Chemistry, Roscoe and Schorlemmer, Vol. II, 
Part 2, p. 289. 



17 


Spain, who can say that the means were not provided large" 
ly with the expectation of deriving some practical money 
results in the form of a better knowledge of the productive 
capacity of the region in gold and silver? 

It is certain, however, that the expedition of Ward in 
1825, was for the purpose of gaining better knowledge, of 
the great silver mines of Mexico. 

There is one exploration—a Missouri expedition—I 
must not omit to mention. The first expedition from this 
State to the Rocky Mountains for silver. Upon the reports 
of silver in those mountains by James Cockrell in 1827 
Benjamin Majors with 24 men set out for the reported 
mines. They crossed the plains in the saddle, reached the 
Raton Mountains, and after much searching found some 
dirty looking rock with white metallic specks in it, which 
they were not sure was silver. They were greatly disap¬ 
pointed not to be able to chop off chunks of pure silver with 
the hatchets they took with them for the purpose. They 
expected to load their horses with the metal and to walk 
back. They, however, had the opportunity of walking, for 
at the crossing of the Arkansas the Indians stole their 
hortes. The fruits of this expedition were surely a much 
better knowledge of the great plains, of the Indian’ tribes, 
and of the range of the Buffalo which then covered the 
plains in countless hordes.* 

INFLUENCE UPON EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, 

The search for precious mineral property has thus been 
the great promoter of exploration and the development of 
distant lands. And the discovery of valuable gold fields 
has always exerted an almost electrical impulse upon all 
forms of industry. Villages, towns, cities spring up as by 
magic, roads are made, railways built, all forms of trans¬ 
portation are brought into requisition, a wilderness is re- 

*For a full notice of the Cockrell-Majors Expedition see Sev¬ 
enty Years on the Frontier, by Majors, p. 34, Rand, McNally & 
('o., 1893. 




i8 

deemed from desolation and made to bloom. There is 
labor and reward for all. New wants are created, new in¬ 
dustries are required. Wealth abounds, and in its wake, the 
luxuries and comforts of life follow. The mind of man is 
expanded, his horizon enlarged, and his capacity for knowl¬ 
edge is increased. Then coma the demands for knowledge 
—systematized knowledge—science. Buckle has said: 
“Wealth must accumulate before knowledge can begin,” 
and that great ignorance is the fruit of great poverty. 

Mining and Metallurgy as arts have exerted, and con¬ 
tinue to exert a most potent influence upon the origin and 
progress of physical science. 

Whewell wrote: “In all cases the arts are prior to the 
related sciences. Art is the parent not the progeny of sci- 
ence. 

Alchemy, and the desire to transmute metals into gold, 
preceded the science of chemistry. So, also, the search 
for the elixir of life, and for remedial agents, gave us rich 
stores of knowledge ready to be systematized. 

With the discovery of copper at Lake Superior, and of 
gold in California, a demand arose for some knowledge of 
mineralogy, geology and mining. Assayers were wanted in 
California and elsewhere. Parties outfitting for the long 
overland journey required some one with them who could 
read the rocks and tell the difference between gold and 
brass. 

There were no mining schools in the United States at 
that time. Chemistry and mineralogy were taught at Yale 
and at Harvard in recently established schools of science; 
that at Harvard endowed by Lawrence, that at Yale with¬ 
out endowment till some years later, when Sheffield realiz¬ 
ing its value, left a large part of his fortune for its mainte¬ 
nance. That school in 1852 graduated five students. It 
now has over 600 students upon its rolls. 

From only two or three centers of instruction in sci¬ 
ence in the United States in the middle of the century the 
demand for knowledge has spread until every state and ter- 
*History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1, p 240. 



^9 


ritory now can boast the presence of schools devoted to the 
increase of knowledg:e of nature’s powers and laws, and the 
practical utilization of such laws and forces. We cannot 
estimate in dollars the value of such schools to the nation. 
Nor can we omit to name with gratitude the far-seeing wise 
statesman, Senator Morrill, the author and promoter of the 
beneficent legislation which permits of your existence as a 
department of the University of Missouri here today. 

There are now some sixty-five or more land grant col¬ 
leges, receiving in the year 1901 $1,200,000 from the United 
States,with over 2200 instructors and 1800 students. There 
are also nearly 500 institutions for higher education. 

We may here acknowledge with gratitude the magnifi¬ 
cent educational endowments and institutions founded by 
those who have drawn their riches from the treasuries of 
the earth. The names of Her^rst—known and beloved by 
Pacific Coast miners as “Uncle George”—of Rockefeller, of 
Carnegie, and we may add of Stanford. These men have 
given practical eloquent evidence of their appreciation of 
the value of education. 

MINING AND GEOLOGY. 

The facts developed by the work of miners in the’r 
subterranean operations have been in all places valuable to 
the science of geolog3^ The phenomena of the rocks are 
closely observed by intelligent miners and demand explana¬ 
tion. It is necessary to success that miners should observe 
closely. Mining, more than agricultuie, tends to intellec¬ 
tual growth. Environment and occupation are great fac¬ 
tors in education. 

The influence of the geological structure of a country 
upon the inhabitants has been discussed by De la Beche. 
He contrasted the condition of the laborers on the poor 
sands of the carboniferous series of northwestern Devon and 
the miners of Cornwall, both considered in the mass: 

“While the former are thinly distributed over the coun¬ 
try" full of prejudices against improvement, and still oftener 


20 


firm believers in witchcraft, ghosts, etc., the miners of 
Cornwall, thickly congregated together in the neighborhood 
of the working lodes, abound with intelligence, and from 
the constant exercise of their judgment are able to take 
correct and enlarged views of man}; other subjects than 
those immediately connected with their ordinary occupa¬ 
tions.”* 

M. Fournet has well remarked that “metals having be" 
come objects of the first necessity to man, he would during 
all times and in all places attach great importance to their 
receptacles, and that it is to their mode of occurrence, their 
connection with adjoining substances, and their relation to 
the phenomena obtainable in the neighboring country that 
geology owes its birth. ”t This view was accepted by no 
less an authority than Sir Henry De la Beche.J 

And we may say that the desire to learn more of the 
extent and distribution of our mineral wealth in the several 
states has induced the appropriation of money for geologi¬ 
cal and mineralogical surveys. The money value of, and 
probable money returns from such surveys have been gen¬ 
erally the leading argument with legislatures of those seek¬ 
ing for appropriations, and in general also in proportion to 
the neglect of pledges to work for economical results the 
surveys have come to grief. “Science for science sake,” 
though beautiful in theory, has rarely, especially in the 
earlier stages of our mining and industrial development, 
been a successful sentiment in the appeal for appropriations. 
But in the faithful endeavors to really prove and solve the 
mysteries of the deposits of mineral wealth, rich harvests 
of science have been gathered in, and results achieved 
equally valuable to industry and to science. 

MINING SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONS. 

Amongst the more important agencies of the increase 
and diffusion of knowledge of mining and metallurgy we 
place the many technical and scientific societies and organ¬ 
izations, not forgetting the immense service of the printing 


2 


press in technical papers and journals. The multiplication 
of periodical publications devoted to mining is surprising, 
especially to those who can remember when no such jour¬ 
nal was published in the United States. Each great center 
of the mining industry may now be said to have its special 
mining journal of wide circulation amongst the mills and 
mining camps of the mountains. And the great daily papers 
are incomplete and unsatisfactory without reports from the 
mines. 

The great international exhibitions since that of 1851 in 
the Crystal P^>lace at Sj^denham have also been a great fac¬ 
tor in education generally, and especially in metallurgy and 
the industrial arts. Amongst the educational agencies by 
which mine engineering has been rapidly promoted in the 
United States, we cannot fail to recognize the American 
Institute of Mining Engineers as one of the foremost. Or¬ 
ganized in 1871 with perhaps a dozen members, there are 
now more than 3,000 names upon the roll. One or two 
large volumes of transactions are published annually, the 
series comprises not less than thirty volumes, and these are 
crowded with technical papers of the highest value to the 
arts of mining and metallurgy. These volumes have been 
ably edited and issued under the untiring care and devotion 
of the Secretary, Prof. R. W. Raymond. 

Another important organization is found in the Ameri¬ 
can Iron and Steel Association, formerly the American 
Iron Association, organized as such at Philadelphia in 1855. 
The present name was adopted in 1864. Under the gen¬ 
eral management of James M. Swank it has been an 
important agent and factor in the promotion of the iron and 
steel industries of the United States. It has been a bureau 
of information for the American iron trade, publishing an¬ 
nually a series of statistical reports. 

We should also, at least, mention the Iron and Steel 
Association of Great Britain, and the several engineering 
societies abroad which are devoted to the advancement 
of engineering in its varied phases and applications in con¬ 
struction and manufacturing. 

1 


22 


VALUE OF MINERAL PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The aggregate value of the mineral production in the 
United States at the end of the century—3^ear 1900—was 
over a billion of dollars, divided between metallic and non- 
metallic products, as follows: 

Metallic . $549,934,370 

Non-metallic . 516,671,217 

Not specified. i,ooo,oco 


Total ..$1,067,605,587 

In the order of greatest total value we find in round 
numbers of millions: 

MILLIONS. 

CoaT. . $321 

Pig Iron ..-. 238 

Copper .. ICO 

Iron Ore . 79 

Gold . 78 

Petroleum . 75 

Silver . 37 

When we consider the magnitude of these figures 
and the national importance of the mining industry, and 
the fact that in the states of the Pacific coast the greater 
portion of the product is drawn from the national domain, 
we cannot but feel that mining, equall}^ with agriculture, 
should enjoy the fostering care of the national congress, 
and that mining colleges should be as liberally endowed as 
the national schools of agriculture. This becomes the 

more vividly important when we consider the imperative 
demand for well educated eugineers, and the desire for 

knowledge which such a demand stimulates and sustains. 
An education in mining has money value. Young men 
crowd our mining schools because they wish to learn. 
They are not sent, but they come as earnest seekers after 
knowledge. Mining is a noble profession, requiring varied 
attainments. A mining engineer, worthy of the name, is a 
liberally educated man, equipped to deal with the forces of 
















^3 


nature, and to use them for the good of humanity, and the 
advancement of civilization. Such an education, I am fain 
to believe, induces general culture. It is ethical in tenden¬ 
cy. It gives respect for truth and right living. Instru¬ 
ments of precision and the balances of the chemist are great 
mentors. The history of life on the earth shows us our 
place in nature and our responsibility. Yet in the limited 
range of our knowledge we stand aghast at our insignifi¬ 
cance and our dependence on the unseen. We are taught 
humility and reverence. Humility is the proper attitude 
for learners. Learners, young and old, we must ever be. 
Let us be grateful for the heritage of knowledge left us by 
those who have gone before and strive to contribute our 
proportion according to the advantages we enjoy. 

*Dela Beche, Cornwall and Devon, page 4(52, 

fEtudes snr les Depots Metalliferes, D’Aubuisseirs Traite de 
Geognosie. 2d Ed., tom iii, p. 383. 

JReport on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somer¬ 
set, London, 1839, p. 349, 


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